The format was new, but the support remained the same.
The Estevan Humane Society hosted a successful, virtual Whiskers and Wine Gala last weekend. Even though many things were done differently for their biggest fundraiser of the year this time around, the board was more than satisfied with the outcomes.
Tayja Zimmerman, the president of the Estevan Humane Society, said that the event went really well, with over 75 per cent of the supper tickets sold.
"It was a way better turnout than we thought we would have. We didn't know how virtual would go over, but we actually had a lot of compliments, saying that people liked it and enjoyed being able to eat at home and watch the live auction from home from the comfort of their couch.
"Overall it went really well. We didn't know what we were going to do and how we were going it do that, but it worked."
A few businesses bought meals for their employees, but most participants were private families. The suppers were cooked by EB's and then humane society board members delivered all of them, except for a couple that were for people from out of town who came to pick up their meals themselves. All together, they made about 100 deliveries that night.
Zimmerman said that this year's Whiskers and Wine Gala wasn't too difficult to organize, but it definitely was different.
"Usually, when we have it in a building, all food comes to us, we set it up, we set tables up. But here we were delivering food ourselves and logistics-wise making sure that everyone had their meal orders correct, making sure that we had the right number tallies to give to EB's for what we were getting delivered. It was a different kind of logistics this year."
The supper portion of the virtual gala was preceded by a silent auction organized through Facebook, the results of which were announced on the night of the event. After supper all people who purchased tickets and those who didn't had a chance to join the shelter for the live auction part of the night.
Zimmerman added that the supper participation was about on par with the previous years, maybe a bit lower, but the openness of the live auction attracted more bidders than they had before.
"There was a lot more participation that way, bidding and people interacting, but either way, it was successful."
The quilt they auction every year traditionally attracted a lot of attention, and general interest towards auction items was high.
The fundraiser brought in some money for the no-kill shelter which will help them keep functioning throughout the year.
"The online (version) definitely turned out better than we expected. We are a bit under than doing our normal in-person gala, but for what we got out of the virtual one, we are really happy with how it turned out. It definitely exceeded our expectations for support that we got for doing it virtually," Zimmerman said.
She also thanked all those involved.
"We'd like to thank EB's for doing food for us. It tuned out awesome. And all the board members that delivered food in the freezing cold."
